This material digitized from this collection consists of the photographic materials from the Bethlehem Howell Neighborhood Center collection. Photographs depict neighborhood life in Pilsen and within Bethlehem House from the 1900s to the 1960s. The full collection includes much more material, including newsletters, board minutes, board reports, and finance information.
To learn more about the full collection or to see it in person, please consult the Bethlehem Howell Neighborhood Center collection finding aid
Bethlehem Center and Howell House were church-related neighborhood houses serving the Pilsen area on the Near West Side. They provided religious, social services, and personal welfare assistance to an immigrant community composed predominantly of Bohemians, Poles, and Czechs. The two centers cooperated throughout their history, merging in 1961 as the Neighborhood Service Organization. The Neighborhood Service Organization, popularly known as Casa Aztlan, continues to serve the Pilsen area.
The consolidation occurred after both houses saw their operating budgets shrink, their once predominantly Czech, Croatian, and Serbian constituencies move out of the neighborhood, and the effectiveness of their settlement organizations dwindle. When both neighborhood houses joined, their charter stated the new Service Organization's goal as: "To be a neighbor to the neighbors in such a way that families are strengthened, lives are made more meaningful and purposeful and individuals see and understand the dignity and worth that is theirs as children of God."
In 1884, Congregational Church Union members created the "Bethlehem Mission" in the predominantly Bohemian Pilsen neighborhood. Located at 1853 South Loomis Street, the settlement hosted hundreds of events in its 80 years of existence that included dances, camps, theater programs, home shows, conferences, church services, and adult education classes. Bethlehem Center initiated some of its most far-reaching programs from the 1930s to the 1950s under the direction of H.W. Waltz, Jr. and later, Clifford Manshardt. In 1944, Manshardt wrote that the center "[stood] for all that is best in this community." He continued that out of Bethlehem came "a Man who challenged the idealism of the world, and it is our hope that out of this Bethlehem will come men and women who will challenge all that is mean and degrading in our community and city." During the 1940s, the Bethlehem Community Center participated in several war-related activities and received hundreds of letters from soldiers serving in the armed forces. After the war, the settlement house held membership in the Chicago Federation of Settlements and Neighborhood Centers, the Welfare Council of Metropolitan Chicago, and the Southwest Central Community Council. By the 1950s, the increasing growth of the welfare state combined with the professionalization of social work and transformed the settlement movement. Bethlehem and Howell Houses, like other settlements, became a more structured social service provider and began working with government agencies.
The Women's Presbyterial Society established Howell Neighborhood House for Home Missions, otherwise known as the "Bohemian Settlement House" in 1905. The mission's first initiative in the "Little Pilsen" neighborhood was a kindergarten in a small building on the corner of Nineteenth Place and May Street. "To stand on the corner of Blue Island Avenue and 18th Street [in those days]," Gertrude Ray later wrote, "was to stand in the heart of a Czech city with a population second only to Prague." The house expanded rapidly and by 1914, the board of management had created, among others, Boys and Girls Clubs, a Sunday school, a library, and an English Night School. C.D.B. Howell, for whom the settlement house was later renamed in 1919, taught Sunday school and brought in other teachers from the neighborhood in these formative years. Additionally, Howell led a fund-raising drive in 1913 that raised money for construction of a larger settlement building at 1831 South Center Street (now Racine). Gertrude Ray, one of the most significant figures of the Howell Neighborhood House, served as both worker and head resident from 1910 to 1945. After retiring briefly to Florida, she returned to Howell House in 1952 to serve on its board of directors. Ray remained one of the most revered and admired members in Howell House history. Just like Bethlehem House, the Howell Neighborhood Center succumbed to the changing demographics and needs of the Pilsen neighborhood. Howell House later became the main building housing the Neighborhood Service Organization.
The image featured at the top of this collection page is BHNC_0040_0275_018, "Four pairs of young women in Bohemian folk costumes pose on a stage in dancing formation".